Finger's sports memorabilia headed to Clute, Willowbrook

The home plate from Buff Stadium will be removed and placed at one of two Finger's Furniture stores.

Photo: Michael Paulsen

One of Houston's largest collections of sports memorabilia is headed to the suburbs.

With the impending closure of the Finger's Furniture store that stands on the site of former Buff Stadium east of the Gulf Freeway, the Finger family will retain its Houston Sports Museum but will distribute its contents to the company's remaining stores in Clute and Willowbrook or to both locations, museum curator Tom Kennedy said Tuesday.

As part of the move, workers within the next few weeks will tackle the question of how to remove Buff Stadium's home plate, which is affixed to the floor in the Gulf Freeway museum area, for display at one of the two Finger's stores, Kennedy said.

"We have to figure out the technology of how to remove it and where to put it," Kennedy said. "But it's not going to be sold, and it's not going to be put into storage."

Assembled for the most part by the late Sammy Finger, the collection of several hundred items dating back to the late 19th century was on display for years at the Gulf Freeway location where Buff Stadium stood from 1928 until the mid-1960s as home of Houston's pre-Colt .45s/Astros baseball teams in the Texas League and American Association. It was in storage for three years after the death of company president Bobby Finger but was opened again by Rodney Finger, Bobby Finger's son, when he reopened the Gulf Freeway store in 2010.

"Rodney is still dedicated to the collection and the museum. It just won't be at the (Gulf Freeway) location," Kennedy said. "He's very proud of it, and he wants it to be where people can see it."

Finger and Kennedy have continued adding to the collection of several hundred items from all sports over the last five years. Recent acquisitions are baseballs signed by Jackie Robinson and Babe Ruth, a ball from the 1956 Dixie Series, a photo of Ruth from the 1940s, shortly before his death, with the Buffs team, and several items donated by Hall of Fame running back Earl Campbell, a longtime friend of the Finger family.

David Barron reports on sports media, college football and Olympic sports for the Houston Chronicle. He joined the Houston Chronicle in 1990 after stints at the Dallas bureau of United Press International (1984-90), the Waco Tribune-Herald (1978-84) and the Tyler Morning Telegraph (1975-78). He has been a contributor to Dave Campbell's Texas Football since 1980, serving as high school editor from 1984 through 2000 and as Managing Editor from 1990 through 2004. A native of Tyler, he is a graduate of John Tyler High School, Tyler Junior College and The University of Texas at Austin.

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